


in memoriam

by Cookiezun



Category: Elsword (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, In light of the third job paths, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Short Drabbles, VCMM - Freeform, and in mourning of mama's ponytail, i have decided to release these shitty drabbles, maybe platonic idk, raven/add if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 06:24:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13140924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cookiezun/pseuds/Cookiezun
Summary: idek short drabbles of add and raven together. uh. throughout canon. mildly non-linear.





	in memoriam

**Author's Note:**

> in remembrance of mastermind's ponytail.

_I remember your scent._

  
Raven opened his eyes and looked up to see Add scrutinizing a flower. His face was scrunched up in concentration, purple eyes almost glowing in the daylight.

He shifted on the other’s lap.

Add looked below towards him and smiled. “Decided to wake up, sleepy head?”

The golden eyes stared blankly at Add. He reached a hand out to reach for the other’s white hair. He held it to the sun and it reflected the light back, making it seem as if glowing.

Raven let the strand of white go and shifted to his side on Add’s lap. “’M still sleepy” He mumbled.

Add sighed and let the other rest once again. Raven fell into a dreamless sleep.

  
_I remember your eyes._

  
The door to Add’s lab was still locked. Raven sighed. He hasn’t been out for a day and a half.

Raven considered knocking again but simply decided to give up, crushing the door knob with his Nasod arm and letting it go, swinging the door open easily.

He spotted Add in front of a wall of monitors, engrossed in his work and not noticing Raven until he held his arm out and placed it on the other’s shoulders.

Add jumped out of his chair and let out a sound before recognizing it was him, to which he just hissed a ‘What are you doing here’ before shoving him towards the general direction of the door whilst trying to recall whatever equation he was working on before the disturbance.

“Take a break, geez.”

“Stop whining and out! Out with you, now.”

Another shove and push with the help of his Dynamos and Raven was out the door. And he stayed there, not that anything kept him out with the door broken, sitting with his back on the doorway.

He watched Add’s back as he clacked away at his keys, murmuring to himself.

Sometimes even Raven couldn’t stop him when he got like this.

  
_I remember the feel of your skin._

  
Add rushed into the front lines, Apocalypse trailing behind him and wreaking havoc.

Demons turned to dust around him as their bodies disintegrated after death. This usually solves the problem of clean-up but not today.

Around the two were countless dead people, their blood splattered on the streets of Velder. The Party split up into different groups to get to different districts faster since the demons somehow got into the specific evacuation areas.

But no matter how much they hurried, the people were already dead.

Raven’s core tore through several armoured demon at once. They left several items behind when they faded away. Gems on silver chains that were probably worn by young girls and women. A ring encrusted with diamonds that a man was probably going to give to his lover. Various trinkets a child would have kept in their pocket.

The tiny memories that the demons stole and dirtied.

Raven only realized half the district was on fire when Add’s scream of frustration broke him off his mania. His white coat was bloodied as he obliterated demon after demon, not minding the arrows that blindly flew his direction.

He paused to observe the surroundings around him before raising his blade and readying his arm to charge once again.

  
_The feel of your hair in my hands._

  
“Don’t expect me to come near that thing” Add hissed.

Raven smiled as he held the white hedgehog up, nuzzling it with his cheeks. “If you can’t find this tiny snowball cute, Add, I’m going to question whether you really have a heart or not.”

The white haired man stared down at Raven with his arms crossed on his chest. Raven looked blissfully happy, his cheeks a warm red, eyes alight with a bright smile plastered, all those not laced with fury and madness. Add couldn’t remember the last time he saw the other like that.

He sighed and dropped into the ground next to Raven.

It wasn’t going to kill to entertain the man for once.

  
_Years have passed though._

  
A sob bubbled and forced its way out his throat. A disgusting sound accompanied by sharp intakes of breath at a fast pace.

Add had a bad habit of hyperventilating while crying. It didn’t make anything prettier nor easier. It just made the moment more excruciating than it already was.

Raven sat beside him, providing silent company.

The ugly cries echoed around in the silent night, the forest returning it in perfect clarity. Still, Raven said nothing.

Add let out a few more screams of frustration along with more tears. He hated it, he hated it, he hated it so much. His fragility and incapability to do anything useful. The lives lost around them everyday just because of his uselessness.

He felt Raven’s golden eyes pierce his back in a stare. He curled up around himself more, not willing to lose any more face than he already has.

The thoughts and feelings of intense hatred for the demons grew, seemingly as much as his own self loathing. And it might’ve taken too long, but after a while, the tears seemed to have stopped, Add exhausting himself. The blood of the people he saw have slowly faded from his mind, replaced by the cold, hard thirst for vengeance and all that was left in his chest was a heavy, suffocating numbness and the growing feeling of discomfort from the eyes watching him.

When he raised his own to meet the other man’s gaze, Raven looked away, as if embarrassed to have been caught.

Add scooted closer to the warmth Raven was radiating, scowling at the thought of grass stains on his pants.

He didn’t realize when but somewhere along the way, his eyes drooped down and he fell asleep, giving in to the tiredness from the way crying seeped the life out of him.

His heart was heavy with the need for retribution but it was the first time in weeks he wasn’t greeted with anything unpleasant in his dreams.

  
_So I may forget at times._

  
The covers rustled as Add heard a soft ‘Really I’ve never took you as a cuddler’ come out from above him.

Raven’s chest hummed as he spoke, Add took note. He sleepily gave a noncommittal sound as he closed his eyes and gathered himself snugger ‘round the older man’s body.

Somehow, one way or the other, Raven has convinced him to finally go to sleep and lay on an actual bed for once. Not that he disliked sleeping or anything like that, he was just simply averse to doing something so unproductive for so long. And sleeping was exactly that. Doing nothing for hours on end when you could be doing something else useful.

Besides, if the reason why you needed to sleep was to gain energy, Add could argue back that coffee could do the same thing without him having to lay still.

If it really was necessary, Add would take a twenty minute nap at the most, spread around the early mornings when his energy would be down from all-nighters.

He allowed himself such brief moments when he couldn’t work anymore but this was a different scenario.

He decided to only let himself rest this time in order to observe what Raven was like asleep. Or just to cuddle up with him since the moment arose and Raven offered. Who knows.

Add peeked an eye open to look from Raven’s chest towards the other’s sleeping face. Well, not so sleeping face, he supposed, as Add’s purple was met with Raven’s gold.

He raised an eyebrow in regard to the peeking and mumbled a muffled “You alright?”

Add didn’t answer and instead raised his head up to press a quick kiss on Raven’s forehead before burying himself back into the other’s chest.

“You forgot the good night kiss.”

Raven chuckled, sending pleasant vibrations to his chest.

  
_I hope you forgive me, wherever you are._

  
The trio looked at each other with depressed looks.

Eve’s stare was blank as usual but everyone could feel the tension with the way she held herself. An irritated mood surrounded her, sandwiched together with the helplessness all three of the Search Party members felt.

The dark circles below Add’s eyes seemed more emphasized as he fidgeted in his seat, coffee in one hand, and the other on a keyboard below the holographic screen showing a feed of the others searching the water-logged area of a deep Velder canal. His expression grew worse and worse every minute he was stuck in the cosy warmth of the very much dry inn the party was staying at.

Raven, Add, and Eve were all forced to stay behind by the rest since a.) Add and Eve’s electric-based attacks would put them all in danger when water was involved, and b.) Eve and Raven’s weight were not suitable for deep, watery things like Velder’s sewers. They were basically wet anchors down there (especially now that it was the rainy season and the canals were flooded with water).

The three tried to protest but were all met with Elesis and Rena’s sharp glares. Add and Eve reluctantly backed down at the sight while Raven simply gave up, not daring to counter the red-headed knight nor anger Rena.

Now, the three were quite lost on what to do.

They stared at one another, eyes searching, waiting for the person seated next to the them to say something to either break the damned silence or acknowledge the fact that they’re all uncomfortable and quite restless in the tiny room.

In the midst of the quiet, a muffled rumbling suddenly sounded outside just as the tiny figures in Add’s screen experienced a quick surge in water level. Add’s drone got caught up in the flood, causing the feed to flicker on and off. Eve spared the two a brief look before speeding away out the door, Raven following after with Add zooming past him on his Dynamos.

Outside was chaos. Demons rampaged, seemingly appearing out of nowhere or, as Raven spotted, out of a dark portal. He grit his teeth. The sky above rumbled as if sensing the turmoil below. Loud cackling echoed from the further down the streets.

Boom. It sounded again. Tiny explosions could be heard in the distance and Raven sensed that it was the source of the troubles underground.

“You two go ahead! I’ll take care of the ones spawning around here!” He shouted. Eve gave him a quick nod, catching up to Add who already sped down the narrow brick paths of the Velder Capital.

Raven turned away from the two, raising his blade and facing the horde in front of him. He shook his head. Add didn’t even think twice before rushing in the danger.

  
_Because if somehow your name slips by my lips,_

  
The chilly Hamel air bit through Raven’s cheeks. Being born and raised in Velder’s sweltering afternoons and humid evenings, the swordsman was more than out of his environment. He could barely feel the leather grip of the sword in his hand with how numb his fingers were. The sea breeze, compared to the warm salt tinged ones from Velder’s docks, felt much fresher and much much colder. Most things in Hamel were different but one thing stood out the same as always.

The stench of demons lingering in the air.

He resisted the urge of bringing his arms up his chest, the urge of disabling the vents that released the heat in his Nasod half (he knew that brought nothing but trouble), the urge of doing what the boy beside him was doing.

Add was shivering all over. Raven knew he’s spent most of his life in Velder as well and that the Hamel chill was just as novel to Add as it was to him. His teeth chattered- and Raven, without looking, could only say so because he could hear the sound of it all the way from his side- and he repeatedly moved his hands up and down his arms, attempting to create some friction and heat in between his usual white coat. His cheeks lit up the brightest of reds, his tongue frequently peeking out to moisten his lips against the cold, cold wind.

Raven felt bad for the boy but knew he anticipated getting to Hamel and the demons overrunning it as much as, or maybe even more than, the rest of the Search Party. After that battle against the Dark Nephilim at the southern gates, Velder’s situation finally got down in control. The Party though, felt jittery, excessive adrenaline coursing through their veins from the intense battle, when the news of Hamel needing reinforcements arrived.

The region was apparently infested with demons that have taken all but the capital at that point. Velder still wasn’t demon-free, and as much as it bothered Raven to leave things unfinished, Hamel needed their help now more than ever.

  
_And I don’t feel that pain that came with our sad love,_

  
Karis fell down, the giant that she was. Eve had managed to take her down while the rest of the search party provided as distraction, taking the succubus’ attention away from the sneaking Nasod empress who dealt the final blows.

Everyone around them was cheering, Raven himself included. Rena grabbed him by the arms and rushed to hug him, releasing him briefly to jump excitedly up and down. All around was laughter as they wound around the mazes that was Behemoth to find an exit.

In the midst of the joy, Raven turned behind him looking for the flash of familiar silver hair. He spotted Add at the very back of the group, solitary and brooding with his arms crossed, and his smile dropped.

Add met his eyes as he approached, looking up from his musings on the ground. “You aren’t celebrating with the others.” Raven said matter-of-factly. Add shrugged in response, dragging his feet across the ground. His hair was more mussed up than ever with the amount of flying he did in the cavern-like structure. He was in charge of aerial attacks, keeping Karis busy not only on ground but also on air.

Raven took in the sullen demeanour of his comrade and chose to join him in his introspections, falling into step beside him. He looked upwards, looking at the disturbing ceiling thoughtfully before lightly bumping the cool metals of his arm against Add’s shoulder playfully.

He looked downwards at the confused scowl Add was giving him, returning the face with a bright smile.

“Hey, cheer up. We defeated Karis, you know.”

Add’s scowl deepened. “Eve did, and that doesn’t mean our problems end here. This is just one big demon before the other and who knows what other troubles may come.”

A rumble went throughout the behemoth, followed by a high pitched shout from Aisha.

“Guys, I think we better hurry! The demonic devices keeping this thing up is breaking down.”

Raven exchanged looks with Add, before looking ahead and dashing to follow the rest of the party. His laughter trailed through the monster’s inside as he ran for his life.

“You jinxed it, Add.”

  
_Know that you are still in my heart but I’ve just moved on._

  
Raven watched as Add placed a hand to ruffle the hairs on his nape. He had his hair cut short a few days ago and it still demurred Raven as he tried to get used to it. His own hair was different now as well but that didn’t matter.

Add held himself in a reserved and withdrawn way as he knelt on a slab of stone, laying white lilies on top. The party had finally managed to catch a break and Raven decided to accompany Add in his journey back to Velder, to revisit old memories.

The stone with the gentle inscription of ‘Grace Grenore’ had set him to thinking of Seris. His companion somehow managed to find the burial grounds of his parents (although he was pointedly ignoring the one beside them labelled ‘Asker Grenore’) but he himself never managed to find out if his own loved one ever did get buried or if she was just left in those woods, an empty cask that once contained so much life.

A surge of rage passed through Raven but it quickly died down as soon as it had appeared. He was getting good at that, control, among many other things.

Add finally stood up and met Raven’s eyes with an unreadable look. Raven let the other approach him first, waiting for him until he moved and gave a shaky smile towards Raven. Clapping him by the shoulder, Add called out.

“Let’s go.”

Raven follows without a word, corners of his mouth tilting up wistfully. He heard of a new ice cream parlour opening around the capital just in time for the summer season and hopes they drop by there on the way back to the inn or wherever it was Add was taking him next.

He catches up to walk beside the man, taking his place at his left.

**Author's Note:**

> and at the other side of Grace's grave lies a similar slab of stone, encrypted with flowery text that reads "Mastermind's ponytail"
> 
> these were old drabbles i decided to finish today bc im still rlly angsty about mama's sudden baldness.
> 
> i started finishing up on the karis thing and decided to frickity frack that sander scene bc my queen does not need any saving from some purple gremlin. instead she brings down karis bless.


End file.
